From Today.....
Opening Statement…“We’re really excited and loving the way our team is maturing right now. It’s such a joy
and it makes me so proud to go to practice everyday because these guys are giving
fantastic effort. We always try to play hard, play smart, play together, and we’re getting
closer to being able to do that on a consistent basis. There was a time where I really
didn’t know what we were going to have when we went into games. Now we don’t have
any question about what we’re going to get. We’re going to get maximum effort and
great team play. That doesn’t always equate to wins, but it gives us a chance to win
every single time. I’m really proud and excited about the direction of our team.”On Kentucky’s injuries…“Ramel (Bradley) hasn’t practiced much, but he looks more alert from the infection. I
don’t know what his status will be tomorrow. I just know that he wasn’t able to play
today. Jodie (Meeks) hasn’t been able to practice for a good while, so it looks doubtful
for him, but some of those things are day-to-day. Joe (Crawford) looks like his feet
aren’t bothering him, but I’m sure they are and he’s just playing through it. We won’t
know until game-time comes about cramping and those sorts of things. I assume he’ll
have some of those until he gets himself into fantastic condition like he was a couple of
weeks ago. Whatever happens, we’ll try to deal with it.”On Auburn…“They have really good players, they’re really athletic and they shoot the basketball so
well at every position. I haven’t seen anyone match-up with them very well because
they’re quick, which is better than height any time. They have great quickness, and they
put so much pressure on your defense. They’ll make threes on you, and if you get out too
close to them they’ll drive past you. So, it’s difficult to guard those guys. This team
plays hard, and I think they are very much improved defensively. They can really
pressure you with their quickness and strength. They changed defense all the time to
keep you off balance, so it’s a very difficult matchup for anyone.”
On Wednesday’s game at Auburn…“Tomorrow night Auburn is going to play hard and Kentucky is going to play extremely
hard. I know that you never know how the game is going to go, but I know what’s going
to happen tomorrow night. It’s going to be a very intense game played by both teams and
whoever makes the most shots and executes the best will win.”On team positives…“There have been a lot of positive experiences for us that a lot of people don’t recognize.
A really great practice is a positive experience that you can put in your bank and go back
and look upon it sometime. The tough times you have are experiences you can go back
and think about. But, really good experiences where you do get the desired result, no
matter what you’re faced with, you can say ‘we’ve been here before and no matter what
happens we’re going to work our way out of it.’ I don’t think the attitude, effort, and
togetherness are ever going to be absent.”On Bobby Knight’s retirement, announced Tuesday…“I don’t think there could ever be a basketball coach that wasn’t affected by Coach
Knight. He was a very compassionate, passionate, and competitive person. It’s a
tremendous loss to the game, but I’m very happy for Coach because that’s what he
wanted to do at this time. He’s one of the best to ever grace the sidelines, and I really
enjoyed our competition when we played at Texas El Paso and Texas A&M. He’s a
model for any coach or anyone in coaching because of his ability to teach.”
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